5 Things I'd like to see in the new 'Skull Island' film.

At Comic Con over the weekend, Legendary Pictures (Pacific Rim, Godzilla) announced they were making a new King Kong film. Now, Legendary have a pretty good reputation for keeping fans happy with their iterations of iconic material they've handled so far (they were behind both the Batman and Watchmen films, to name but a few), so seeing them get involved in re-booting/reinventing King Kong seems like a pretty good idea at this point. It's early days yet for the project (no director, etc, announced), but seeing as I coming down after a hard few days of King Kong myself, I figure I may as well give my hopes for it, as it stands right now.

1 - A running time under 3 hours.

One thing that you can say about Peter Jackson; he sure loves making films with an arse-numbing running time. Be it his Lord of the Rings trilogy or his yet-to-be-finished The Hobbit trilogy, there is no escaping to the toilets when the titles roll. And while it can be argued that Tolkien's world lends itself to a languid pace and 180 minutes to ponder on the material, I don't agree with dragging out King Kong (2005) to the 3 hour mark. The film became tiresome around the 2 hour point, with a lot of time spent with characters that barely featured in the third act. The two hour point is usually great for the action and adventure genre (set out by the likes of JAWS and carried over into genre-defining films like Raiders of the Lost Ark) and so far, by using Godzilla and Pacific Rim as examples, Legendary have nailed it pacing wise. Lets hope they keep the head on this next venture; being epic doesn't have to mean a 3 hour film.

2 - No love interest for Kong

Seeing as this isn't another dreaded remake of the King Kong story, they need to abandon the 'Kong gets the horn for the babe' aspect that everyone knows at this point. It's been done to death, and nothing new can be said about humanity via a giant ape falling in love with a lady anymore. The drama really dragged down Jackson's version, as enjoyable as it was, but it went too far towards tugging at the heart strings, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, seeing as they are calling it 'Skull Island' leads me to believe they'll want to have something that might not be quite as 'Kong-centric', meaning he might not get to make kissy faces at the lead actress.

3 - Do not take him back to New York (or anywhere for that matter).

Bringing Kong (or any other giant monster, for that matter) back to civilisation is as familiar and over played as the love story angle mentioned above. The original film is too iconic at this point for this to be exciting anymore. Once again, this being a stand alone film and not a remake gives me hope we can get away from these aspects of the story that have been overplayed with the material. Besides, when even bringing a T-Rex back to the States doesn't elicit many thrills in The Lost World, you know the story angle is finished. I think as far as blockbusters go, we've seen enough cities destroyed in the last 3 or 4 years to last us a while. Let's give it a rest.

4 - Bring back the good-old sense of adventure.

One thing that Jackson did get right for his remake was the sense of scope and adventure on the island itself. I'm a sucker for anything with that Land that Time Forgot vibe; plenty of prehistoric creatures battling it out, while the puny humans run around in a frenzy, hoping not to get trampled by these leviathans. Anything that reminds of the great Harryhausen pictures we used to watch, in which imagination was the only barrier, is a good thing. Sadly, I felt this aspect was missing a little from the 1976 Kong, and was completely absent in the 1986 sequel. 

5 - A director on board who doesn't just do action.

Despite a few points I've made above, I do really want to see some great human drama and conflict in this. Whatever about the monsters, these films need interesting characters and compelling drama, and something a bit fresher than what we got in the 2005 film would be nice. It'll all boil down to the writer and director, though, and apparently, Godzilla writer Max Borenstein is writing the picture, with Legendary looking to get the likes of Joe Cornish (who directed the excellent Attack the Block) behind the camera. This is definitely a step in the right direction, and getting the 'not obvious choice' has worked well for Marvel over the last decade with their picks for projects. Time will tell though, but with a release date of 2016 already pegged in for Skull Island, I expect we'll hear about this one sooner rather than later.